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American Literature. Native American Literature. Native American Literature. The first American literature was created by the first people to live here—the Native Americans, who inhabited North America thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived. Native American Literature.
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American Literature Native American Literature
Native American Literature • The first American literature was created by the first people to live here—the Native Americans, who inhabited North America thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived.
Native American Literature • The original native peoples belonged to more than 200 distinct groups who spoke more than 500 different languages. • Their ways of life, was formed by their natural surroundings, and varied greatly. • They had complex religious beliefs, sophisticated political systems, and strong social values, all of which are reflected in their literature.
Native American Literature • First things first, Literature is not limited to what is written down in books.
Native American Literature • Everyone’s first exposure to literature is oral—lullabies, bedtime stories, and nursery rhymes.
Native American Literature • In Native American culture, the oral tradition was the way young kids learned tribal history and beliefs. • This oral literature required huge amounts of memorization, so Native Americans often used drum music as a memory aide.
Native American Literature • This Native American oral literature was the first American Literature. • Some widespread types of Native American oral literature are: • creation myths, which explain the beginning of the world; tales of heroes and tricksters who transformed the world to its present state; and the ritual songs and chants that are part of ceremonies.
Native American Literature • Although traditional Native American literature has many forms and functions, much of it emphasizes the importance of living in harmony with the natural world.
Native American Literature • According to Native American beliefs, human beings have a kinship with animals, plants, the land, heavenly bodies, and the elements.
Native American Literature • All of these things are seen as alive and aware. Furthermore, the human and the nonhuman are seen as parts of a sacred whole. • To Native Americans, human beings do not have dominion over nature; they are part of nature and must act to maintain a right relationship with the world around them.
Native American Literature • Native Americans and their traditions have not disappeared from this country.
Native American Literature • Although some cultures were lost to the diseases and violence of the Europeans, others have survived—changed but not destroyed by forced religious education.
Native American Literature • Today, Native Americans live in cities and suburbs as well as on reservations. • They are keeping oral traditions alive by singing songs and telling stories, but they are also writing in English.
Native American Literature • Many contemporary Native American authors are enjoying unprecedented respect and popularity. • Most of these writers display a powerful interest in the problems of harmonizing the old and the new. • The structures of the works themselves are often based on a blend of oral techniques and new literary forms.
Native American Literature • The fact that these writers continue to draw on traditional sources for inspiration and have found such wide acclaim demonstrates the enduring value of our country’s first literature.
Trickster Tales • Trickster Tales are a type of Native American Literature. • Trickster tales are folk tales that feature an animal (coyote, raven, etc) or human character who engages in deceit, violence, or magic.
Trickster Tales • Often Trickster Tales are mythic, explaining features of the world. • Tricksters can often be contradictory. For example, they can be greedy but helpful, clever but dumb, moral yet very immoral.
Trickster Tales • Strategies for reading trickster tales: • See the footnotes for explanations of Native words and ideas. • Accept magical transformations and animals who behave as humans. • Note mysteries of nature that are explained. • Infer the social values taught through the characters and situations. • Note details that reveal other aspects of Native American culture.
Trickster Tales • In these traditional Native American tales, there is no sharp distinction drawn between humans and the rest of the natural world, suggesting a philosophy that views humans in harmony with nature.
Trickster Tales • Trickster tales often have a cause-and-effect structure on two levels. • First, the entire story explains the cause of some aspect of the natural world. • Second, the plot of the tale unfolds as a series of casually related events.
Creation Myths • A creation myth explains how the universe, earth, and life began.
Creation Myths • Creation myths, to some extent, are imaginative stories of cause and effect. When events have a cause-and-effect relationship, one (the cause) directly brings about the other (the effect).
Creation Myths • Creation myths, like all myths, can be viewed as essentially religious, presenting the cosmic views of the cultural groups that create them.
